Revelations
by shandiss
Summary: Helping out Diesel leads Steph to some interesting discoveries about the other Unmentionables in her life. Fluffy romantic one shot in response to a June 2009 Perfectly Plum challenge. Rated M and completely Babe.


_All characters belong to Janet Evanovich. Completely Babe. Rated M for mature content, adult situations and language. This is a one shot from Tricia's June 2009 Unmentionable Perfectly Plum challenge. Mistakes, illogical circumstances and unrepentant fluffy-brained romantic encounters of the Ranger kind are entirely my fault. _

**Revelations**

"_Diesel!"_

Steph screamed the Unmentionable's name as loudly as she could, but the explosions erupting around her made it doubtful that any human ear could hear her. Flat on her stomach in the swamp of Newbold Island, she burrowed deeper into the muck as a fireball clawed skyward ten feet to the left and the ground shook. Clods of dirt, mud and swamp debris rained on her, and Steph swore to herself that this was the last time she would ever follow Diesel on the hunt for a renegade Unmentionable.

"Diesel!" Smoke drifted over the ground, obscuring the surrounding terrain. Another fireball erupted as the fire salamander expressed its unhappiness about their pursuit.

She was thinking desperately that her gun might have come in handy, if guns worked against fire salamanders and if the item in question wasn't sitting at home in her cookie jar. _Or perhaps one of Ranger's guns,_ she thought. The upside was that Ranger's guns came with the man himself, and reinforcements were definitely high on her list right now.

A concussion flattened her as a stream of hot air blasted overhead. Steph shrieked instinctively and covered her head, hoping against hope that her next thought wouldn't be the realization that the fire salamander was standing directly over her. There was a pause, and she cautiously raised her head slightly to peer at her surroundings.

The silence stretched even further, emboldening Steph to rise up slightly on her arms, ever ready to dive back into the muck and its rather thin protection. "Diesel?"

"Over here," came the pain-soaked whisper, and she crawled on her belly across the oozing mire to where the Unmentionable was lying curled up in the shelter of a deadfall. His blue eyes were dull with pain, and as she got closer, she realized that the entire upper portion of his left arm was blackened and oozing with third degree burns.

"Oh my God," she said in a low voice. "Diesel, what happened?"

"Caught . . . part of . . . a fireball," he said slowly. "Toasted me . . . good."

His eyes started to flutter close and Steph grabbed his hand, careful not to jar his shoulder. "Don't you dare pass out on me," she said fiercely. "You are not going to strand me in the middle of nowhere to face a pissed-off fire-breathing lizard on my own."

"Wouldn't think . . . of it." Diesel took a deep breath and winced as the movement jarred his injuries. "See . . . the chain on . . . my neck?"

She scrabbled underneath the collar of his Henley and pulled out the fine silver links. On the end was a delicate white bone pendant, carved into the shape of a bird's feather. The detailing was exquisite, obviously the work of a master, and her fingers shook as much from fear that she would break it as the current circumstances.

"Do it," he said.

"What?"

"Break it." Diesel slumped back, his head rolling back on the ground. He was clearly struggling to hold onto consciousness long enough to make her understand. "Beacon . . . calls for help."

"I can't—" She broke off as two things happened simultaneously. Diesel's eyes fluttered shut, and a loud roar shook the surrounding woods. As she ducked behind the slim protection of the deadfall, Steph snapped the bone pendant in half.

It fell to powder in her hands, each piece disintegrating like sand before the tide. Instinctively, Steph tried to hold onto it, but the grains fell through her fingers and into the mud. She stared at the empty chain dangling from her fingers, then dove for the ground as a fireball screamed past. Others erupted until a wall of fire raged in a complete circle around them. Smoke and searing heat billowed over her, and Steph huddled as close to Diesel as she could, closing her eyes and hoping that the end would come fast.

The ground shook with titanic force. Steph grabbed onto the grass, the fingers of her left hand digging into the tough roots as she threw the other arm over Diesel to keep him close. The heat was growing quickly to unbearable; the exposed skin on her face was starting to sear as the flames rushed nearer.

The fire salamander screamed, an ear-piercing shriek that rose above the noise from the fire. It screamed again, then abruptly everything went out.

"Hold still." The voice she heard in the darkness was vaguely familiar. Steph frowned as she tried to place it. Something whimpered nearby. "Then quit fighting. I'm trying to make this as painless as possible. Wouldn't you rather go home?"

Steph dragged her eyes open. It was difficult to see through the dirt and muck in her eyes, but the tears washed them out and she blinked several times to clear them. As her mind registered what her eyes were seeing, she wished silently that she could blink her mind and make sure that it was still working properly.

Albert Kloughn stood in the middle of the swamp facing a fire salamander the size of a mini van without the slightest sign of fear or hesitation. He raised a clenched fist, and white light flowed over it and down his arm as he took a step towards the salamander. It cowered back, and his expression softened.

"This won't hurt at all, as long as you keep still." He raised the hand, and the salamander lunged for him, its heavily toothed mouth opened wide for the kill.

Her scream of warning came out as a gasp, but Albert didn't need her to state the obvious. He held the glowing hand in front of him, and spoke one word in a soft voice that didn't carry. The salamander tripped and went down, somersaulting forward until it landed in a heap at Albert's feet.

He knelt down and checked it over, then stood and spread his hand over its body. The light flowed down and across the length of the salamander, steadily growing brighter until it obscured every bit of it. There was a slight flare then it faded, leaving behind nothing but the bare ground.

Steph levered herself up to her knees, her head spinning as she tried to process this information. It wasn't working as well as she might have hoped. The swamp started a slow, lazy spinning around her, and she felt herself starting to tip over.

"Steph!" Albert's voice was filled with concern, and she felt his hands on her arms, keeping her upright. She tried to talk, to let him know that Diesel was hurt and she was okay, but no words came out. Her eyes rolled up and she went limp.

The second time out of the darkness was much like the first, except there wasn't any fire salamander lighting up the swamp. She heard the voices first, then felt something rough under her cheek. It took a while to get the brain working again, but she felt around a bit and figured out that she was lying in the back of an SUV on the cargo space. She hadn't driven an SUV to the site, and she knew Diesel didn't drive, so the question was who—

"Steph?" Albert's quiet voice intruded on her thoughts, and she felt him touch her arm. It was like being touched with a live electrical wire. She opened her eyes to see a very tired Albert leaning on the tailgate and watching her.

"It wasn't a dream," she said, wincing slightly as she struggled to sit upright. He watched her with those pale blue eyes, the usual buffoonery completely gone.

He shook his head. "No, Steph. It wasn't a dream. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I didn't want you to be burdened with the knowledge of what I am."

"I don't understand," she said, resting her aching head in her hand. "How could you be—"

"Different?" asked Albert. "You of all people should know that people aren't the sum of what others think. There's always more beneath the surface."

He gently touched her forehead with his finger, and the ache vanished. Albert leaned against the bumper and watched as she tentatively straightened up, waiting for the pain to come back. When it didn't, Steph slid out of the cargo space and sat on the bumper.

"So, you and Val," she said, "was that part of the plan?"

A sheepish laugh escaped him. "No, not really. I was working deep cover, trying to infiltrate a corruption ring in the local bar association when I met her. It seemed like the perfect way to get in with the ring; they had blackmail material to use against me and I was pathetic enough to make a good low level drone."

"But—"

This time there was nothing sheepish about his laugh. Pure delight flowed through it to the point where Steph had to smile as well. "I fell in love. It came out of nowhere. One day I was working a case and the next the sun rose when she smiled and set when she cried."

Steph sniffed slightly, not sure why there were tears stinging her eyes. Maybe it was the realization that her sister had found a man and an Unmentionable who was crazy about her. Maybe it was the realization that her own love life was less than stellar. Maybe—

"What's it like?" she asked suddenly. "What's it like to love that much?"

A twig snapped off to their right, and Albert glanced over and smiled. "Like that," he said, nodding in that direction.

Steph turned as well and went utterly still. Ranger was moving through the scorched underbrush, Diesel's arm slung over his shoulders as he helped the injured Unmentionable walk. His dark gaze rested on her, and even across the distance separating them, she could feel the weight of his relief at seeing her.

As Albert went to help, Steph slid off the bumper and leaned against the side of the SUV. Albert's words echoed in her brain as Ranger kept watching her. She tore her gaze away and stared at the ground, preferring the bare dirt at her feet as she chewed on her lower lip. The revelations of the past few minutes gave her a lot to think about, and not the least of them was what she had seen in Ranger's eyes.

It only took a few minutes to get Diesel bundled into the back of the SUV and covered with a blanket. Ranger closed the gate and walked over to where Steph stood. He stopped in front of her and waited. She was tempted to keep her eyes down, but curiosity was always the stronger force. Steph looked up and was instantly lost, drowning in a dark gaze that held a maelstrom of emotions. Instinctively she moved forward, into the circle of arms that wrapped around her and held her tight.

"I was so scared," she whispered against his chest.

Ranger brushed a gentle kiss across her forehead. "So was I. The call came and I was afraid I'd get here too late."

"But you didn't."

"No, I didn't."

Steph closed her eyes, thinking about what Albert said. "Ranger?"

"Hmm."

"I love you."

He froze, then his fingers brushed up and down her spine. "Albert talks too much," he said, and the amusement in his voice was enough to make Steph open her eyes and tilt her head back.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

Ranger smiled at her, the brilliant one that always made her toes curl, and leaned in to kiss her lips. "It means that I love you, Steph. Always. Forever. No matter what."

"Forever," she repeated, kissing the tip of his chin. "I kind of like the sound of that."

"I was hoping you would." Ranger easily lifted her up so her feet dangled off the ground. Then he proceeded to kiss her so thoroughly that she didn't think her toes would ever straighten out. Somewhere in the middle of it, she twined her arms around his neck and gave back as good as she got.

A throat being cleared rather loudly broke the mood. Ranger gave her a gentle kiss and then glanced to his left. "You need something, Kloughn?"

Albert leaned against the SUV, his cherubic face creased in a delighted grin. "You riding back with me?"

"No, we're good," said Ranger. He held Steph's eyes with his own as Albert climbed into the SUV and drove off through the trees. Steph looked around the clearing.

"So how are we getting home?" she asked.

He scooped her up in his arms and spun her around until she shrieked with laughter. As he set her down again, Ranger kept an arm around her shoulders to hold her close to his side. "The old-fashioned way," he said with that devastating smile. "I don't want to waste any time."

The swamp vanished. Steph opened her mouth to say something, then shut it as a vast green lawn appeared around them. She looked around and saw a white colonial house standing on the gradual incline leading to its porch. Trees lined the green expanse on the other three sides, and the soft yellow light of late afternoon illuminated everything.

"Where is this?" she asked.

"Home," he said, resting his cheek against her hair as he gathered her close.

"Is it forever?" Steph held very still, waiting for his answer and knowing without a doubt that she feared the one that would break her heart.

Ranger picked her up again. She looked into his eyes and felt her heart stop at what she saw in those depths. "Longer," he said. "Much, much longer."


End file.
